Modern Warfare Remastered: A flawless mix of spectacle, statement, and story

Game Details

Developer: Raven Software/Infinity WardPublisher: ActivisionPlatform: PC, Xbox One, PS4Rating: M for MatureRelease Date: November 4Price: £64, $80 (Only available as a pack-in with Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare)Links:Amazon (UK) | Steam | Official websiteIn 2007, the first-person shooter was in a rut. Games like Call of Duty and Medal of Honor had proven extremely popular on the PlayStation 2 and PC, but as the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 ushered in a glorious future of high-definition graphics and online gaming, the military shooters failed to keep up. Years of focusing on the historic destruction of World War II were taking their toll. But Infinity Ward, the developer behind the first two WWII-themed Call of Duty games, took a gamble on a new direction, one that would come to define an entire generation of console gaming. For the next Call of Duty, Infinity Ward wouldn’t look to the past for inspiration, but to the gritty (approximate) reality of modern warfare, and the Hollywood films that glamorised it. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare was born.

Almost a decade later, it’s easy to forget that Infinity Ward took a risk that ranks alongside that of the original iPhone. Skipping the 20th Century entirely, Modern Warfare transported players to contemporary conflicts. In the place of beach landings and frontline combat, it captured the tension of SAS infiltrations, the organised spectacle of a US invasion, and the end-of-the-world stakes of militarised ultra-nationalism. It even threw in a stray nuke for good measure.

Further Reading

The Modern Warfare remaster—out on November 4 only as a pack-in bonus with the futuristic Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare––not only commemorates an iconic release, it reinforces Modern Warfare’s real-world foresight. The remaster is a testament to the power of a creative idea that revolutionised a genre, and to a game that seems to have predicted, or at least understood, how the geopolitical climate of the Middle East would further destabilise throughout the succeeding decade.

Visually, Modern Warfare was always a lavish, Hollywoodesque production, but it’s surprising just how good it looks today. The technical work behind the update makes this more of a remake than a simple remaster, with a complete rebuild of its weather effects, texture work, lighting models, and character animations creating a game that looks as modern as it did in 2007.

Just as modern

Perhaps more impressive is how well the level design holds up. It's strictly linear but spaciously inventive; Infinity Ward understood how to make Modern Warfare’s corridor combat so exciting. Its theatrical set-pieces, choreographed with surprising precision, are still unrivalled to this day. Numerous shooters have since attempted to achieve the same edge-of-your-seat adrenaline rush, including further Call of Duty sequels. The best attempts might reach the heights of Battlefield Bad Company 2; the worst sink as low as the Medal of Honor reboot. None have commanded the same tactical frenetics of Modern Warfare.

Further Reading

The campaign runs at a short six hours—at the time this was a surprise, and to many a disappointment—but it’s perfectly paced, and contains more political statements about war and conflict than any other shooter in recent memory. It’s shocking in several ways, featuring a presidential assassination broadcast live on national TV, depicted from a first-person perspective, forcing you to view events from the victim’s perspective. In other ways it’s morally ghastly; there's an entire mission played from the perspective of a Lockheed AC-130 bomber, which sees you defend a squad of SAS soldiers through a series of towns, farms, and fields. Your copilots laugh jovially, referring to the footage as a “highlight reel” while you just kill, kill, kill without any risk whatsoever. In light of the rise of drone warfare and airstrikes on Syrian soil, it’s stirring stuff.

The opening of Modern Warfare is as impactful now as it was in 2007.

It’s also frequently fraught. The iconic mission "All Ghillied Up"—a plot flashback to the mid 1990s in which the player controls their in-game superior, Captain Price, as a lowly lieutenant, and sneaks across an irradiated wasteland with his own boss—was a true high point back in 2007, and this is still the case today. It remains chilling to see a desaturated Chernobyl and its surrounding countryside, creating more atmosphere and tension even than in a new Fallout title. It’s similarly still amazing to see how the mission reacts to your behaviour: botch a kill and get compromised, and your boss furiously whispers “The word 'stealth' doesn't mean anything to you, does it?!” once the shooting subsides. There’s a section where you have to kill a sniper in a watchtower—aim at the wrong tower and MacMillan tells you to aim at “the square one." It’s a mission that’s inherently staged, but it cleverly masks itself, creating the illusion of true interactivity.

This silent offensive through the undergrowth, avoiding soldiers just inches from your prone form, soon feeds into a terrorist assassination gone awry, which leads directly into a breakneck retreat to escape and a desperate final stand-off on the city’s iconic ferris wheel. It’s impeccably put together, and the interesting parallels between the youthful Captain Price and present-day protagonist Soap are subtle touches that reinforce Infinity Ward’s craftsmanship.

Enlarge/ The "All Ghillied Up" mission is a standout piece of game design.

The game’s most lasting legacy is how it takes all of its charged ideals and makes sense of them all, while always remaining open to interpretation. If you look at its themes it could’ve been a nonsensical disaster. Ultra-nationalism, state invasions gone wrong, and a rogue nuclear device are all margin notes for an absurdist ‘80s action flick screenplay starring a budget Schwarzenegger—but Modern Warfare’s no-nonsense campaign never loses sight of the point it’s trying to make.

Perhaps it’s the sheer conviction with which the game delivers its best bits that makes it so timeless. Its opening mission, wherein you assault a tanker in the middle of the ocean, is an exercise in breaching doors and checking corners. “Crew expendable,” assures Price, before you rappel down onto the rain-battered deck. It sets the rules of war for the entire game thereafter. By today’s standards this introductory infiltration is positively uninteractive—you’re almost a bystander to the action—but the authenticity with which it depicts the operation is an absolute thrill to behold nonetheless. You are a soldier, not a war hero, and that fundamental difference sets Modern Warfare apart from every other combat shooter out there.